Short WORKSHOP REPORT FORM
Number and title of workshop: Special Session – Ethics in the Supply Chain: Managing
Risk and Building Trust through Supply Chain Ethics
Coordinator: Michael Hershman
Date and time of workshop: Thursday November 11, 2010, 1500 - 1730
Moderator: Michael Hershman, The Fairfax Group
Rapporteur: Michel Girodo, Interpol Group of Experts on Corruption
Panellists:
Michael Hershman, President, The Fairfax Group
Alexander Brigham, Executive Director, Ethisphere Institute
Stephan Linssen, Editor-in-Chief, Ethisphere Institute
Main Issues Covered
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A big problem is that the reputations of multinational and smaller corporations are
linked to how their suppliers conduct themselves. If one of your supply chain partners
is caught breaking the law or being corrupt you stand a real chance of suffering
negative publicity. How do you control the behaviour of your suppliers so it does not
reflect badly on you?
There can be financial penalties for you if your suppliers or sub-contractors paid
bribes.
Can companies approach their suppliers and insist they follow a code of ethics?
What strategies can be used to encourage suppliers to conduct themselves ethically?
What are the costs and benefits of successful strategies?
Main Outcomes
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Suppliers will conform to a code of ethics if you make it attractive enough for
them. You can show how it can be profitable for them to do so: Here is how.
(1) Develop a common standard of conduct for all to subscribe to. Start with not too
demanding standards and then raise the bar down the road.
(2) Don’t make it too expensive for them to implement or they will bow out.
(3) The way you make this attractive to corporations is the same way TI uses the CPI
to get attention and send a message. But you go one step further.
(4) Collect measurable evidence of the extent to which they are complying with the
standards. First, get them to describe their programs and put this information into
a compliance program – benchmarking data base. Second, verify through
assessment that examines policies, reporting, training, monitoring, ethical culture,
leadership etc that we know are linked to detecting and preventing bribery and
corruption. Third, arrange your findings in the form of ratings received, rankings
with other corporations. Fourth, publish your findings widely and award
certifications, logos and designations in three classes: (I) World Class programs
(limited); (II) Industry Leading Programs, and (III) Best Practices in Anti-corruption
Programs.
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What evidence is there to indicate this type of initiative can work?
• The Ethisphere Institute, - a well recognized name in business ethics and
anti-corruption has collected benchmarking data on more than 2,000
corporations around the world.
• The Ethisphere Institute publishes reports, rankings, and findings from
verifications in a quarterly magazine sent to more than 30,000 subscribers.
• This appears also in the Daily GRC Digest with more than 65,000 readers.
Everyone, large and small corporations, suppliers, and competitors alike can
see where they stand in relation to everyone else on the index and the World’
Most Ethical corporations.
• In a study of the profits earned by the World’s Most Ethical (WME)
businesses from 2005 to 2010, we see that this index is a stronger
contributor to profits than is your ranking on the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100.
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Conclusions
• By measuring the extent to which corporations and businesses comply with
anti-corruption standards for prevention corruption you have a very powerful
tool with which to influence behaviour.
• By publishing the results of the verifications and providing labels to
categories and rankings you invite a comparison process which stimulates a
desire to get out of the low ranks if you are there, and if you are already
grouped with industry leaders, to drive you to comply further with the
standards and achieve world-class standing with your program.
• Voluntary regimes for self and peer assessments are growing very rapidly in
numerous areas of work. Peers and social pressure around complying with
“soft laws” can have considerable impact on behaviour.
Main Outputs
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The topic and the manner in which the workshop was led facilitated considerable
discussion and well thought-out remarks and interventions among many of the more
than 70 participants.
Input was provided by participants from a variety of countries and indicated that the
problems faced around supply chain ethics were comparable.
The notion of trust and how to cultivate it was often brought up. Cultivating good
relationships with partners and suppliers is facilitated by enlightened leaders in
businesses that look at vendors and stakeholders in the supply chain as one big
family.
Recommendations, Follow-up Actions
While external communication strategies are essential to make this strategy effective, several
interveners believed having a good internal strategy for communicating ethics and for
implementing the standards was just as essential. It was suggested that the actions of
“whistleblowers” may signal the very fact that your company has failed in implementing
standards and communicating violations using internal avenues for reporting.
Part of this internal communication strategy should include a shift in language from
developing a “tone at the top” to communicating actual ethical acts and tough decisions made
by the Chief Executive. Behaviours speak louder than words.
Workshop Highlights (including interesting quotes)
“Trust but Verify” Michel Girodo Nov 12, 2010